Redefinition in E Major (REM?)

Last week I attended a workshop that drew together Challenge Based Learning, online learning, and Ruben Puentedura‘s SAMR model of technology adoption. As always, there was a lot of conversation around how applications of different technologies to learning in context is classified as Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and the big elusive one, Redefinition.

To me, this video is a stunning example of how technology has redefined an experience. While the interpretation of music is always a very subjective experience, it’s a fairly safe consensus that REM’s original version of Losing My Religion comes across sounding very hollow and mournful. MajorScaledTV on Vimeo have through the use of clever transposition technology afforded the song a completely different feel while maintaining the same instruments and voices. The original was written in a dark, sad, minor key which lends it that characteristic bleakness. The rework has shifted it into more upbeat major scales, making it sound so much more optimistic and warm. To me, the most striking change is the connotations I’m hearing in the lyrics.